Small Miracles

In one of our last installments, you may recall that in my 100 things I talked about the fact that all our kitties have been going missing. At one point, we had at least 3 adult cats and a litter of babies. We were getting worried how we were going to take care of all these kitties. I could just see us trying to catch these mostly wild cats to try to get them vaccinated. Well, one by one, they started to vanish. In one way, it was a relief, because we stay on the road a lot, and it is hard to properly care for animals if you are not home. But in another way, it was irritating, because we did not know what was happening to them all. I even suspected that a particularly cranky neighbor of ours was setting traps to eradicate some of the pet population, but since I don't go snooping on his expanse of property, I have no way of knowing. Said neighbor has the male cat who propagates the neighborhood cat population. It is funny, because everyone in the neighborhood has a cat who looks like this man's long-haired male. This male seems quite tame, so I wonder why they have not had him neutered. I guess they don't have a problem, in their own estimation.

Our old mother cat--the grand ma-ma--should have exhausted her nine lives years ago. Just when we would all speculate that she was gone for good, she would show up at the back door, hungry and begging. She even lost one eye in a fight with something. Now, we have not seen her for a good while, and we suspect she finally did use up those lives. Our neighborhood is set at the base of a "mountain." It is not a really tall mountain, but it is one in a chain that you can see in the marshmallow photographs I am posting today. We are an official neighborhood, but it is rustic out here, and there is a big cow field behind us where all types of animals live. Deer are plentiful, and it is not unusual to see 7 or 8 in our yard at dusk and dawn. We have seen skunks, possums (yuck!), foxes, and most recently, coyotes, which scares me to death. I have heard that they will even drag off small children if given the chance. So, my girls never go out to play unaccompanied. Our yard is 2.6 acres, and the boys love to play football or any kind of contact sport out in the yard with the neighborhood boys, and the girls love to get in their Barbie jeep and ride around. I just won't let them go by themselves.

As I mentioned in my 100 things, which you should read if you have not by now, we used to have a dog who at least kept the critters away by barking. She was a big, clunky golden retriever who was just not too smart. We were always disappointed with her from the start. Take my advice, and if you want a really good dog, go to a reputable breeder instead of a pet store. We should have known she was hyper, because she could not be controlled at the store. We thought she was just excited about getting out of that nasty cage. Unfortunately, she was just stupid.

When we brought her home, she would go to the bathroom in her kennel, and she would not go outside for anything. We would put her out, leave her a good while, and she would promptly come in and mess up her kennel. That got really old really quick, so she became an outside dog. Well, then, she was too stupid to go in her house. She would sit out in the rain, snow, or whatever and howl and bark all night. Finally, to get any rest at all, we had to let her in at night and put her out in the daytime.

Then, she started running away. Before we knew it, she went into heat, and she met up with a "traveling man" in the neighborhood. One night, we heard the worst ruckus in the back yard. It sounded like a cat trying to sing or something. It had started to turn chilly--it was November, I believe---and Tim went out to see what the noise was. He came back in with a small living creature that we could not readily identify. After some cleaning up of the small thing, it was determined that it was a puppy. (Newborn puppies who are cold can make a lot of noise for such a little creature!) "Dog," as Tim called her, was having puppies!

Well, I got her inside, and I put her in her kennel, which had some hay in it, because she liked the hay. That was a big mistake. The puppies came at a rate of about one every 30 minutes. Each had its own little sack of fluid surrounding it, and the mother would chew it out of the sack and clean it up. But the hay was getting stuck to the puppies. Dog seemed to trust that I was there to help, and she would let me take the pups and warm them after she was done cleaning them. She would rest until labor started again. Dog and I went all night, it seemed, and sometime around 4 in the morning, we had 9 puppies! All thanks to the "traveling man!"

The next 6 weeks were very intense. Daniel and I had to bathe all 9 puppies daily, or the stench became so bad we could not take it. I think it was 6 or 8 weeks until it was nearly Christmas, and we placed an ad in the paper and got a good response and sold every puppy for $25. I did not want to give them away, as there are people in our county who would take them for free and not care for them and possibly even have them for dinner. No kidding. (This is Tennessee, folks!) Those who got them were generally happy to have a part Golden Retriever, part traveling man puppy for $25. I won't tell you the insane price we paid for "Dog."

Well, eventually, Dog decided that it was more fun to hang out with the Bassett hound across the road, and the two of them started getting into trouble together. We brought Dog home, and tied her, but she would find ways to get loose and go again.
Finally, she ended up over at the home of a little old lady down the way. The little old lady apparently makes homecooked meals for Dog, whereas we only supplied her with yucky dog food. (She did get scraps.) So, Dog started spending more time there than she did at home. We went and asked the little old lady if she wanted us to bring the dog home, and she said, "Oh, no, she loves it here, and I love her! Let her stay!" So, we did. My kids can visit their not-too-intelligent canine any time, and she seems to have settled down some now. She has eaten so much there that she is fat as a butterball and can't run too far.

And, in the meantime, since the dynamics of our lives have changed in that we are away more than we used to be, we decided not to replace the pets. Our part-time cat has had two babies in the yard. They will either grow up and be good mousers like their mom or go the way of the other cats. That just seems to be the cycle of life around here. I wonder at the "small miracles" in nature almost every day. These kittens seem a bit smarter than their predecessors. I guess we will see, if they live to adulthood. I am rooting for them. I would protect them if they would come to me, but they come from a long line of wild kitties, who are most comfortable in the great outdoors, with only slight feeding assistance. They catch most of their own meals, and they only come begging when times are lean. We are most happy to help them out, seeing as they are kind enough to keep the mouse population down. Mama cat even had a snake cornered the other night. I HATE snakes, so I was distressed to see a snake in the yard, but I think it was harmless. Tim killed it anyway, just to be sure. Ahhh, country life. There is never a dull moment.